“How much does having a greenhouse reduce the amount of stuff you would do indoors if you didn’t have a greenhouse?”
I start just about everything from seed indoors in my grow light rack in the pantry and things are moved into the (unheated) greenhouse to harden off and grow to size before planting outside as the weather warms up. I also move flats in and out as weather permits, to help harden things off.
I did the same thing without the greenhouse, but there was a lot more moving in and out of flats each morning and evening, when I was putting flats in sunny spots on the porch.
Then, there were years when I was raising puppies and flats of produce and puppies do NOT mix, LOL!
Before I had my grow light rack, I just used shop lights and boards for shelving and bricks for moving the lights up or down as needed.
I never approached it as an economical solution, though starting everything myself ended up being more economical in the long run.
Up here, I love the greenhouse on the back side because I can keep salad greens (and some years cherry-type tomatoes) going well into the Fall. This year I had salad greens up until December 23rd! Zone 5a.
Sounds about how I figured it will work. Temps fluctuate so much here, seeds have to be started indoors and seedlings need to stay indoors for a while. Greenhouse should help me get some of the bigger plants out of the house sooner. Still might be some shuffling indoors on cold spells.
I was running out of room in here last Spring and had lighting hanging at 3-4 different heights in different spots. Having a dedicated room will be a big help. Also got my eye on a shelving unit to use for a seed tray rack.
I will be setting up some sort of lean-to greenhouse against this SE wall, however crude/cheap it may be.